A hostage situation at a bank in western Germany ended on Friday after police freed two people unharmed, but the suspect or suspects managed to escape.
Officers entered the bank branch in the town of Sinzig and found the two hostages locked inside the vault. However, they did not find any of the suspects. Police said investigators now believe that, immediately after locking the victims in the vault, the perpetrator or perpetrators left the scene by as yet unknown means.
Earlier, police had said they believed there were several hostage-takers and hostages inside the bank, and that the driver of a cash transport vehicle was among those being held.
Police wearing helmets and ballistic vests and carrying rifles were seen on a cobblestone street outside the town's bank branch, photos published by the Bild newspaper showed.
It remains unclear how many robbery suspects were involved or whether they were armed.
According to Bild, the occupant of an armoured van was intercepted and threatened in front of the bank in a standoff that began at around 9am on Friday.
The small town of Sinzig is located just west of the Rhine River, roughly halfway between Bonn and Koblenz in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate.
During the operation, police said there was no danger to people outside the cordoned-off area, while details were initially withheld for tactical reasons. A spokesperson told Der Spiegel that it could not be ruled out that the hostage-takers were following online news reports.
In late 2025, a bank robbery took place in Gelsenkirchen, another city in western Germany, resulting in losses of €30 million, according to police.
